Tuesday, 23 September 2014

Cloudy with hazy sunshine and a little cooler than of late,
18º, light SSW.

Jays.

More Jays seen today with 9 in a short stretch of hedge on
the south side of the hill and they flew off towards Kingstanding hill and the
downs. Another 1 flew into trees on the north side of the hill, at least 2 more
seen and heard further back and another 2 flew from a hedge on the east side of
the hill making a total of at least 14 and all moving in a southerly direction. So with TW’s sighting yesterday makes a total of
at least 26 in 2 days. Is there a movement of Jays in the county?

(Per Tony Williams; A Raven flying over the hill on several occasions recently.
20+ Chiffchaff, 1 Willow Warbler and 1 Blackcap along the Thames between Ferry road and the 4 Arches also an interesting sighting of at least 12 Jay flying high south!)

Friday, 19 September 2014

Every day seems different on the hill lately with today no
exception with at least 53 Pied Wagtail(incl 2+ “White" Wagtail) counted along the south face, also 2 Yellow Wagtail and 3 Meadow Pipit.

A field to the west that was in the process of being
ploughed had 35+ Stock Dove plus a
similar number of Wood Pigeon and
over 100 Lesser Blackback Gull
loafing nearby accompanied by a single Herring
Gull again.

A Tit flock on the north side consisted of 40+ birds (c25 Long-tailed, 9 Blue and 6 Great Tit) with
2 Goldcrest and at least 3 Chiffchaff present.

Thursday, 18 September 2014

Another warm and muggy day with a lot of farming activity
around the hill today with 3 fields being worked.

Again quite a few raptors in the air with 24 Red Kite, 4 Buzzard and a Hobby over
the hill area also around 200 Lesser
Blackback Gull, 1 Herring Gull
and 20+ Black-headed Gull on a field
being ploughed.

6 Chiffchaff in
the area, 1 Blackcap, 6 Yellowhammer, a small flock of 12 Swallow overhead and 2 Kingfisher nearby.

Friday, 12 September 2014

No change in the weather, fairly sunny, warm, dry, light
north to east winds and very little bird movement at least around here also the
grass was being cut on the south face so nothing there. Where are all these
scarce migrants that the east coast is getting along with Scilly, Bardsey etc that's on the other side of the country?...............................Ah hang on a minute, this is
Oxfordshire................................! We can dream though.

A few hours spent on the hill and again little to show for
it, 3 Chiffchaff, 5 Meadow Pipit(first of the autumn), 6 Yellowhammer,
30+ Stock Dove, 1 Green Woodpecker, a few Buzzard and Red Kite overhead and the fields around that were being worked had
a good number of Rook, Lesser Blackback Gull and a few Jackdaw present.

Wednesday, 10 September 2014

Another warm day and not much change on the hill since
yesterday although after scouring many of the hedgerows in the area I managed
to find 5 Chiffchaff, a Blackcap, 1 Green Woodpecker, a couple of Yellowhammer, 2 Kestrel
and a small Tit flock of Long-tailed,
Great and Blue Tit.

The south face of the hill was also quiet, 1 Sparrowhawk flew over, up to 8 Red Kite at times soaring overhead and
10+ Buzzard overhead.

100+ Swallow over
the village this morning all moving in a southerly direction and a single Jay flew over Honey Lane.

Monday, 8 September 2014

During the past week TW has been visiting Lollingdon hill
and has noted Redstart still present plus Wheatears and Whinchats passing through.

Lots of common migrants also seen on the downs.

I had an email in the week referring to a bird heard “whooping”
around the centre of the village. As I was not around I got word to a couple of
local birders to check it out and as I have not heard anything I assume it did
not come to anything.

Email; “I am getting
reports of an unusual bird call in the village in the last three days. The
latest report was from Little Lane yesterday - when an unusual whooping sound
was heard. This is similar to the report of Tuesday when a similar sound was
heard behind The Forty and close to the Rec”.

Meanwhile elsewhere in Cholsey

Juv Cuckoo with a Fox Moth caterpillar or a Fox moth caterpillar with a juv Cuckoo,
Cholsey. (Courtesy Roger Wyatt).

Sunday, 7 September 2014

The sea watching has been dire this week however a single
Balearic Shearwater seen today.

As for the land a noticeable increase in a couple of species
with c250 Wheatear and 30 or so Whinchat noted. Swallow was also noted in good numbers with a steady flow most of
the day and a few large flocks seen c500 birds through the day, 5 House Martin, 40+ Yellow Wagtail, 7 Grey
Wagtail, 12 Tree Pipit, 3 Blackcap, 2 Sedge Warbler, 4 Chiffchaff,
50+ Willow Warbler, 3 Redstart, 5 Spotted Flycatcher, 2 Pied
Flycatcher, 1 juv ♂Great-spotted Woodpecker, 2 Sparrowhawk, 1 Little Ringed Plover, and at last a flyover Ortolan Bunting!

A noticeable tail off on passage after midday.

A stop off on Ferrybridge on the way back produced 20+ Wheatear, 3 Sandwich Tern, 1 Knot, 2
Bar-tailed Godwit, several Dunlin and Ringed Plover.

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About Me

I have always had a passion for wildlife and the environment; I have been birding now for quite a few years. I moved from Chelsea to Cholsey, Oxfordshire when I was 9 years old.

My main influence was my old Cholsey school headmaster W.D.(Bill)Campbell. He inspired my interest in wildlife. I have travelled widely on a global scale(ex Royal Navy), and in the 80’s I got into twitching, travelled a lot observing rare birds that turned up in the UK. I have been birding in the Cholsey(and Oxfordshire)area since the early 1970’s and since moving back to Cholsey from Wallingford I have focused more on my local patches of Lollingdon Hill and Cholsey Marsh, also other areas in Cholsey.